The first question that Dr. Solomon posed during his talk was, “What is soil?” This was a very broad question and the first thing that came to my mind was that soil is this essential material that plants need to grow. However, as Dr. Solomon continued his talk, I learned that soil is much more than that!

Soil affects climate change. I learned that soil contains lots of carbon, and that when this natural soil is disturbed, not only does the soil degrade, but it also emits carbon into the atmosphere, harming the atmosphere. However, scientists are figuring out ways to sequester this carbon, burying this carbon back into the soil. When this carbon is added back into the soil, the soil benefits, becoming more dark, more fertile. 

As scientists have been working on finding effective ways to sequester carbon, and researchers have been working on ways to make soil more fertile, Dr. Solomon said that indigenous tribes in Africa have been doing both for decades. These tribes have been effectively adding carbon back into the soil to produce dark, fertile soil for agricultural purposes. Thus, it was really interesting to hear scientists learning from these indigenous tribes on not only reducing harmful carbon in the atmosphere but also producing great, fertile soil.